Every Monsoon season, with the first few showers of rain, these small but beautiful flowers appear suddenly overnight as if bursting out from the earth. They are known as Rain lilies, Fairy Lilies, Rain Flowers, Magic lilies Zephyr Lilies or Atamasco lilies.
Zephyranthes as they are known technically, are a species belonging to the Amaryllis family. The name is derived from Zephyrus- the Greek god of the west wind, and Anthos- meaning flower. As far as I have seen them, they are available in colours of white, yellow and pink- may be in different shades within the same colour.
You can know about them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyranthes
These are perennial bulbs which can withstand very hot summers of our South India. They completely disappear during the summer months and with the first showers, spring back to life, filling the garden with beautiful small flowers, swaying gently on their slender stalks.
They can be propagated easily from bulbs. But even seeds can also be used as I have seen.
I used to have all the three colours. But they spread so much that we kept on weeding them out. Now I am only left with yellow ones. I think I will plant the other colours too. Here is a glimpse of these flowers.
They spread like wild fire and it is difficult to dig out the bulbs from nooks and corners of the garden. Still, I love these flowers when grown in posts or beds as they make a very colourful display.
I am busy with my garden. It requires a lot of work as I have been neglecting it for long. Part by part I am reclaiming and redoing it. Mostly my trees and bushes have been pray to termites. So it is really sad to see the plants/trees die away after being in the garden for long time. We are not able to completely eradicate the termites. So i am again plating those lost plants.
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